Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights Watch Film Festival’

05/26/2011

»  Summer Festival Screenings of Cinereach Supported Films

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The contagious energy of film festivals makes them the ideal environment to experience new films. If you’re in New York, Los Angeles, DC or beyond, please check out these upcoming events, as well as the Cinereach-supported films that are screening at them. The links below will take you to more information about the festivals, films and screening details.

Sheffield Doc/Fest
Sheffield, United Kingdom
June 8th – 12th

Sheffield Doc/Fest brings the international documentary family together to celebrate the art and business of documentary making. In addition to a wealth of inspirational documentary films, Doc/Fest offers pitching opportunities, controversial discussion panels and in-depth filmmaker masterclasses.  Cinereach is excited to have several grantee projects involved in this year’s Doc/Fest, in various ways including a world premiere for one!

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Just Do It: A Tale of Modern Day Outlaws
Winter 2011 Grantee
Director: Emily James
Producer: Lauren Simpson

For a year the filmmaker submerged herself in documenting the secret activities of environmental direct action activists in the UK. The result is a behind the scenes portrait of a community of actively engaged citizens who aren’t prepared to sit back and allow the destruction of the world’s ecosystems and climate.

Just Do It Screening Information – World Premiere!

Sheffield Doc/Fest will also screen If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (screening information).  See the Human Rights Watch Film Festival section below for more information about the film.

Several Cinereach-supported projects are also participating in the MeetMarket. Look for Gardens of Paradise, Teenage, When Two Worlds Collide and Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute grantee God Loves Uganda.

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Human Rights Watch Film Festival
New York, NY
June 16th – 30th

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival brings to life human rights abuses through storytelling in a way that challenges each individual to empathize and demand justice for all people. In presenting this work, the festival creates a forum for courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference.

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If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
Directors/Producers: Marshall Curry & Sam Cullman

Daniel McGowan was arrested for being part of the Earth Liberation Front, a group responsible for arsons against timber companies and SUV dealerships. Through his story the film sheds light on two of our most important and timely issues–terrorism and environmentalism.

If a Tree Falls screening information.  Discussions with filmmaker Marshall Curry will follow both screenings.

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Los Angeles Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA
June 16th – 26th

The Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent, an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting independent films and filmmakers. In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the festival connects the movie-loving public to emerging talent, through FREE screenings of films.  Included in the festival:

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On the Ice
Winter 2010 Grantee & Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
Writer/Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
Producer: Cara Marcous

On the snow-covered Arctic tundra, two teenagers try to get away with murder.

On the Ice screening information

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The Bully Project
Summer 2009 Grantee
Director: Lee Hirsch
Producer: Cynthia Lowen

“A year in the life” of America’s bullying crisis that offers an intimate look at how bullying has touched the lives of five kids and their families.

The Bully Project screening information

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BAMcinemaFest
Brooklyn, NY
June 16th – 26th

Now in its third year, BAMcinemaFest collects dynamic and innovative new work from recent festivals.  It has been called New York’s “best independent-film showcase” by Richard Brody of The New Yorker.  Four films supported by Cinereach will be included in this year’s lineup, including a short nurtured through the Reach Film Fellowship.

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Love Lockdown
2010 Reach Film Fellowship Project
Director: Nadia Hallgren

A young mother from the Bronx reaches out to the incarcerated father of her children, via Lockdown Love, a popular late-night radio show.

Love Lockdown screening information

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Dragonslayer
Winter 2010 & Summer 2010 Grantee
Director: Tristan Patterson
Producer: John Baker

The transmissions of a lost kid, falling in love, in the suburbs of Fullerton, California. Featuring skateboarding, the usual drugs, and stray glimpses of unusual beauty.

Dragonslayer screening information

BAMcinemaFest will also screen On the Ice (screening information) and If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (screening information). Please see previous festival sections for more information about those films.

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Silverdocs
Silver Spring, Maryland
June 20th – 26th

The AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival has been called “Non-Fiction Nirvana” by Variety, the “Pre-eminent documentary Festival in the US” by Screen International and the “premiere showcase for documentary film” by Hollywood Reporter. Silverdocs is a festival and conference that promotes documentary film as a leading art form, supports the work of independent filmmakers and fosters an atmosphere for public dialogue and civic engagement around the issues and ideas explored in the films. Included in this year’s Silverdocs are:

Donor Unknown

Donor Unknown
Winter 2010 Grantee
Director: Jerry Rothwell
Producers: Hilary Durman & Al Morrow

A twenty-first century tale of identity and genetic inheritance, and perhaps the family of the future.

Donor Unknown screening information

Silverdocs will also screen Dragonslayer (screening information), The Bully Project (screening information) and If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (screening information). Please see previous sections for more on these three films.

06/11/2010

»  Extended Q&A: Following up on Back Home Tomorrow

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Thank you to all those who attended the May 26th screening of Back Home Tomorrow at DCTV.

To jog your memories regarding Back Home Tomorrow, which received a Cinereach Award in connection with last year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the film deftly weaves together the stories of two children affected by war during their stays in the caring hands of Italian aid organization Emergency. Yagoub fled with his family from Darfur to the Mayo Refugee Camp in Khartoum. He has to undergo a serious heart operation, but neither his family nor his fellow tribesmen can come up with the money to pay for it. Murtaza is recuperating in a hospital in Kabul after losing his left hand to a landmine.

Eric Talbert of EMERGENCY USA, the international aid organization that provides medical care to the subjects of the film, took questions regarding the organization.  One of the film’s co-directors, Fabrizio Lazaretti, had hoped to join the Q&A via skype but was unable to. Audience members had some follow-up questions for Fabrizio which we relayed to him by email. We’ve posted his answers below, in addition to  relaying some key points from Eric regarding EMERGENCY USA.

If you haven’t seen the film, or would like to see it again, please add the film to your queue on Netflix. We hope it will soon be available to view in the US as it has recently been released on DVD in Italy (where the directors are from).

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Murtaza, one of Back Home Tomorrow's young protagonists

Email Q&A from Fabrizio Lazzaretti

Q: Can you discuss your shooting format and the approach you used to capture Back Home Tomorrow? How were you able to achieve such compelling and extensive coverage during difficult and frightening circumstances?

We shot Back Home Tomorrow on HDV, and used two Sony Z1 cameras and a Sony AE1. [Co-director Paolo Santorini and I] shot for most of the time with two cameras simultaneously to obtain a fluid visual  language much closer to narrative cinema than to traditional documentary.

The scenes that are painful to watch in the film unfortunately represent just a fraction of what we witnessed. Being behind cameras helps to distance us from a scene a bit, because we concentrate on the technical aspects of capturing what is unfolding. But the sadness of what we were witnessing did often follow us home at night and stays with us still.

However while we did witness extreme human suffering, and it has definitely left deep scars, the experience also gave us the opportunity to observe great resilience and strength – which was especially powerful to see in the young boys that were the subjects of our film.

Q: How did you become involved with EMERGENCY?

I started working with Emergency in 1999-2000, making a film about the construction of their first hospital in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan during the war between the Taliban and the Mujaheddin. After September 11, 2001 we returned to shoot another film on the takeover of Kabul. In 2006, we knew that Emergency wanted to build its first Cardiac Center to treat patients free of charge in Africa, so we decided to join forces again to portray this new experience. We wanted to tell two parallel human stories that were representative of the NGO’s work in two distant countries, but similar in how they handled the long-term effects of war.

Q: How did you find your protagonists?

For the Sudan part of the story, we met Yagoub in the pediatric clinic of Emergency which was located in the Mayo refugee camp. We decided to start to follow his story in parallel of the building of the Center for Cardiac Surgery because his condition could be treated at the hospital when it was complete.

In Kabul, we were beginning to be familiar with patients at that specific clinic when Murtaza arrived with his injuries, and we began to follow him from the moment he was admitted. In his case, it was really fate that caused us to cross paths.

About Emergency USA

Who: Emergency USA, Life Support for Civilian Victims of War and Poverty, an independent nonprofit organization established to raise awareness through education about a culture of peace and respect for human dignity, and to raise funds and community support for medical care, rehabilitation and relief efforts for victims of wars, landmines and poverty.

What: The programs we support provide free-of-charge, high-standard medical and surgical care in war-torn areas. All facilities are designed, built and managed by the Italian NGO EMERGENCY where specialized international staff is committed to training local medical personnel.

Why: In today’s conflicts 90 percent of the victims are civilians, of which 1/3 are children.

When: EMERGENCY USA’s (2005) medical-humanitarian mission is inspired by the innovation, integrity and accomplishments of the international NGO based in Italy, EMERGENCY which has operated independently since 1994.

Where: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Iraq, Italy, Sierra Leone and Sudan, with a newly opened Pediatric Center in Nyala, South Darfur, in Western Sudan.

EMERGENCY has completed programs in Algeria, Angola, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Serbia and Palestinian Territories.

Getting Involved: For volunteer opportunities that include helping to raise awareness and funds, please contact info@emergencyusa.org.

More info:
www.emergencyusa.org
www.emergency.it
www.emergencyuk.org

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